Central Alberta farmers surprised to welcome triplets at once for second year in a row
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Just hours after Albertans welcomed the New Year with a chant of “three, two, one,” Lucky 7 Cattle Co. owner Stacey Simpson was counting down incredulously: “One, two, three?”
Simpson, a purebred red and black Angus cattleman outside Sedgewick, Alta., a town about 150 kilometers southeast of Edmonton, said he was not surprised that his five-year-old heifer Dukey 2026 was showing signs of labor three hours later.
But what shocked her was that Dukey’s symptoms continued even after giving birth to two calves.
“As I was coming out of the maternity pen, my father looked at me and said, ‘I think you better try again,'” Simpson told CBC News. “I rolled my eyes and said, ‘Okay, we’ll check.’
“Sure enough, I’m up to my shoulders with this cow and I can feel the tip of the legs when the third calf comes in.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no, here we go again.'”
Dukey’s three children, named Carla, Darla and Marla, were born healthy, for which Simpson and her family are grateful. The odds of triplets being born are already long, and their survival even rarer.
Incredibly, Carla, Darla and Marla are not the first set of affluent triplets of the Lucky 7.
Dukey’s own mother gave birth to the farm’s first trio just last year. Heavy, Dewey and Louie are all still part of the Lucky 7 herd and according to Simpson, their birth was even more remarkable.
“All three of those calves were presented correctly at the time of delivery, so she probably could have had all three of those calves without any assistance.”
Simpson’s sister Kylie, also a Lucky 7 farmer, said they only “raise 35 cows.”
He said, “The chances of this happening are very low. But for it to happen twice is surprising.”
Unlike their counterparts, the future of Carla, Darla and Marla – and their genes – at Lucky 7 Cattle Company is still to be decided; They may be kept for breeding or sold to the highest bidder.
But in the meantime, Stacey Simpson said she’s happy to take advantage of the novelty of such a rare event. A video posted to the Facebook page of Lucky 7 Cattle Co., showing the mother and her calves, has received nearly two million views as of Thursday, as well as comments from people living on other continents.
“We’ll probably stick with Marla, Carla and Darla throughout the year because it’s given us a huge following on social media,” Simpson said.
